Rob Bounds

Position: East and West Midlands Regional Representative

Year joined the board: 2012

Place of work: I work for Derbyshire County Council as a senior transport officer – I started at the local authority in 2001 in the road safety team before joining the sustainable travel team in 2004 as a school travel plan officer.

Brief career history: Before joining Derbyshire County Council I was a primary school teacher and before that I worked as an environmental education officer for Groundwork. In my student days and for a number of years after I was also a part-time lifeguard.  In my current role I am responsible for school travel plans which includes devising and promoting the authority’s Travel Smart initiative to encourage sustainable travel to school through curriculum and practical focussed activities, including the creation of campaign resources, the Scooter Smart programme and Modeshift STARS.

Why joined the board: I was press-ganged! In all seriousness I was very pleased to be invited to join the Board to represent the East and West Midlands during the transition period from UKLAST to Modeshift as the organisation began to expand in 2012 to help carry on the good work established by the previous Travelling to School Initiative regional advisors.

Personal: I am a bit of a natural history fan and David Attenborough is my hero! Inspired by him I have over the years been lucky enough to visit many places in the world to enjoy similar wildlife experiences in places such as the Galapagos, the Serengeti, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Borneo and the Arctic Circle to name a few. Along with a cat and an axolotl I also have an aviary which houses around 50 finches, budgies and canaries